Posted
by
samzenpuson Thursday March 20, 2014 @12:01PM
from the ask-me-anything dept.

J. Michael Straczynski has written Thor, World War Z, and Changeling among many other films. He created Babylon 5 and has worked on numerous comic book titles including Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man. Most recently, he has teamed up with the Wachowskis for an original Netflix sci-fi series, Sense8. He's agreed to take a break from his busy schedule in order to answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.

True. I'm more concerned about the content dying forever as the formats change. All the VCRs I had stockpiled are long dead, and even the DVDs are starting to thin out. As far as I'm concerned, its worth preserving.

The July 1994 issue of Compute! magazine discusses the graphics used in Babylon 5. By today’s standards, it seems primitive, but it was innovative in its time. Each episode of the series used an average of 6,000 frames of computer graphic animation from Foundation Imaging. They used 24 Amiga 2000s, 16 of which were dedicated rendering engines. They had 32 megabytes of RAM, a Fusion-40 accelerator and the Toaster. The Amigas were connected via a Novell network and sent data to a 12 gigabyte 486 PC file server. They later upgraded to Pentium and Alpha-based systems.

An opportunity to re-do all the CGI with the latest and greatest tech? Crowdfunded? Perhaps even "Director's Cut" with additional new filming to restore the creative vision as it would have been unhampered by financial or time pressures?

I'd get behind that. Look at it this way - even if crowd funded, it may/would create some jobs in the already tight U.S. FX industry.

I'd like to add to this question, since I missed my chance last time and I'm a huge B5 fan (it was on PTEN when I was a kid, and we didn't have cable so it was UHF channels for me... and then I missed season 5 entirely which led to rewatching it a couple of years ago... and hooking plenty of other people since then).

Have you considered rebooting Babylon 5 with a new cast a la JJ Abrams Star Trek? If not yourself at the helm of such a project, would you ever cede control of those characters to another creative team?

You don't have to be a Michael Straczynski to know that B5 had a "beginning of the story" and an "end of the story". One of the best decisions that Mr. Straczynski ever made was to allow the story to end (and end grandly I also have to say).

Too many cheap crap-hounds (*cough*couch*abrams*cough*) try to extend a story as long as they are able to squeeze money out of it and are eventually revealed to have no idea what they were doing or where they were going with it. Straczynski told a really great story that ended i a really great way. Live and art have to move on.

No, not confusing at all - Crusade was indeed a direct carry on. Allies of the Shadows unleash a plague on humanity in a revenge attack, and the alliance sends a ship to find a cure. How is that not a direct carry on?

What you are talking about is something like Stargate Atlantis - definitely not a carry on from the original series, but set in the same story universe (not physical universe of course:) ). The two had essentially no story cross overs of any real mention, but Crusade was very heavily crosse

Really? All the "made for TV movies" that were released after the end of the final season? The entire Crusade series? The Legend of the Rangers? The Lost Tales?

The climax of B5 was at Coriana VI in "Into the Fire". The rest of Season 4 was more of an epilogue. Season 5 was sort of a Similarion. Crusade was basically a new book - the Thrawn story to Return of the Jedi (it's fine, but take it or leave it without consequence).

The made-for-TV movies were mostly embarassing. In the Beginning stands on its o

Too many cheap crap-hounds (*cough*couch*abrams*cough*) try to extend a story as long as they are able to squeeze money out of it and are eventually revealed to have no idea what they were doing or where they were going with it.

LOL... sounds like Highlander. A script which left no real possibility of a sequel (let alone ones people had to pretend never happened in the first place).

I never quite understood how they justified the series, but it was entertaining for a while if you pretended you didn't know h

And understanding the Hollywood screenwriting and production process a bit better before blaming JMS for that. Plus, if you don't have a credit in the movie, you don't get residuals, and professionals get paid.

Why did you make a movie and then name it World War Z when it had nothing in common with the source material except for a title?

Because the movie that was released had relatively little to do with the screenplay that JMS wrote. In fact, they had to add some of JMS's writing back in when they released how terrible the later revisions were.

I've often noticed that if an actor played a speaking character in one scifi series, while looking mostly humanish, any other series they are in they have a pretty concealing costume. For Instance Mr Katsulas played a rather humanish Tomalok on Startrek, whereas his G'Kar had a pretty intense costume.

Probably plenty of other examples, those were the ones I knew off my head (I enjoyed all 3 of those franchises very much), and I'm sure plenty of counterexamples. Makes me think it's probably coincidenc

The farscape/SG crossovers always had the feel of "throwing a dog a bone" after the dog's show was canceled/completed, and I blame that entirely on SyFy. They were unashamedly trying to use the stars existing clout to gain mind-share.

One example I can think of in B5 is Bestor (Walter Koenig aka Chekov), but he stands on his own, as did McGuyver in SG1. Chriton and Erin did not hold up nearly so well in alternate roles.
I'm primarily thinking of people who played small, one-time parts (so perhaps Katsulas

True, though the bone-throwing applies to many actors. Heck, Nathan Fillion still gets to make Firefly jokes on practically any show/in any movie he's in. Of course that's become a bit of a running gag, but I don't think any director so far has said "no." to that.

Completely off-topic, in my mail client this read as "Reactors across series" and I for the life of me couldn't imagine what that would be a reply to, but was intrigued:)

It's just a coincidence. Consider Walter Koenig. Essentially, the only difference in concealing between Pavel Checkov's Starfleet uniform and Alfred Bester's Psi-corps uniform were the gloves. When Ben Bowder and Claudia Black transitioned from Farscape to Stargate SG-1, their clothing/costume coverage remained unchanged. There are lots of other examples.

Numerous posters are decrying the lack of the original book's content in the final screenplay, so I'll ask a slightly different question.

One of the problems cited with adapting the book was the structure of the narrative, since it was essentially a series of interviews. But movies consisting of interviews and recollections, and their non-linear construction, have been done before. (The most obvious example is "Citizen Kane".) As problems go, this one didn't look insurmountable from here.

For me, you are the father or grandfather of social TV, meaning the way you promoted Bab 5 (before, during and after) the series is more or less the methodology that many TV shows and movies have adapted. You maybe have been using NNTP (Network News) instead of Facebook or Twitter, but for me you are the first.

My question: in that context: What are show producers/runners not doing today with Social Media that they could or should be doing to engage and interact with fans?

Here's my question - What's the deal with the Forbidden Planet prequel/sequel/remake/reimagining/whatever your name was linked with some years ago? I've heard all kinds of rumors. One was that you finished a script but it got stolen and posted on the internet and that killed the project, Other rumors have this being a prequel, a sequel, a film set in the same universe and all kinds of things. I love the original film so if there's ever a chance of you being involved in something related, I'd love to know whatever you can tell, even if it's not much.

A highlight of my early days online was when I asked (and your replied) to a question I had about how the Narn defeated the Shadows the previous war. I'm sure that many people had a similar reaction when you interacted with them. I was elated for days.

Has there or will there be an effort to edit/catalog and compile all of the fan interaction as part of the history of Bab 5? [This seems like a great task to hand over the your fans].

I'm surprised no one here has yet mentioned Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future -- a spectacular kids show that had a surprisingly complex plotline considering the goal of the show was mostly to sell toys.

We had only one season, which essentially ended with a cliffhanger (although it was pretty obvious "Pilot" died), but, if there had been the funds to do a second season, any thoughts about where you would have gone with the show?

Did you create the B5 universe to be a space for new stories in the future, or was it all built around the specific tale you wanted to tell? The spinoffs seemed to go off on tangents away from that show's characters, organisations, and setting.

What would the dialog be in a confrontation between Zathrus, Thor, and Loki? If you cannot tell us for legal reasons, what would it be in a meeting between not-Zathrus, not-Thor, and not-Loki, who happen to resemble the characters they are not?

What would the dialog be in a confrontation between Zathrus, Thor, and Loki? If you cannot tell us for legal reasons, what would it be in a meeting between not-Zathrus, not-Thor, and not-Loki, who happen to resemble the characters they are not?

Are you referring to Zathras, Zathras, Zathras, or Zathras? (Not even Zathras listens to Zathras.)

Do you make an active effort to craft something that will inspire future science and exploration with your storytelling? Or do you approach it as just something implicit in having spaceships and aliens and futurey type things?

After I was turned onto Babylon 5, I looked you up and found out you were involved in TV shows I enjoyed as a kid. For example, "The Real Ghostbusters" often had compelling plots and dialogue that were noticeably different from your average cartoon. But my curiosity was really piqued when I read you played a large part in creating the short-lived live-action "Captain Powers" series. Assuming the rights could be secured, is there any interest on your part in either continuing/rebooting the story in some f

So, what is the story with Jeremiah? I only saw the first season and haven't been able to track down the 2nd, but I rather enjoyed what I saw of the show.

I read an interview you did http://www.republibot.com/cont... [republibot.com] where you mention that you finished the 2nd season and wrapped up what you could as best as you could and then ran like hell. What happened?

First I wanted to thank you for B5, It's views in offering a society and philosophy that was NOT Star Trek but more real, which really spoke to me and influenced me in several ways through my life (I think for the better).

My question is about the philosophy from B5, the underlying belief that "We are all 'star stuff''" became more of a guiding virtue. I found this most appealing, can you share what your source was for this universal belief system and if it is one that you subscribe to?

In every show there are cases where something external to the show necessarily ends up forcing changes to the plot of the show (an actor leave unexpectedly, network demands some change, etc.). We know there's a number of cases where something like that ended up impacting Babylon 5. In your opinion, what forced change had the biggest impact on how the show came out, and what would have happened differently if things had worked out the way you had intended them to?

I'm going out on a limb here.:) I hope only for the comments and particular view you hold in relation or thereabouts.

So if accept that the soul is a measurable discrete entity, and we accept that in lower energy forms it is to be placed in a vessel or body that then becomes it's "home" for the duration of time the vessel can contain it, until death, then clearly the soul is somewhat a localized entity. As a body dies and decomposes, returning its material to the land from which it came, we can easily a

I remember hearing your name being attached to a Forbidden Planet remake.

If this is true, can you talk about the project at all?

Forbidden Planet is my all-time favorite movie, and I would love to see someone (more specifically you) make a modern version that's true to the original. It was cerebral Sci-Fi at a time when Sci-Fi was mostly for kids. Given how Sci-Fi is enjoying a resurgence in the main-stream, now seems like the perfect time to bring this classic about the dangers of the human subconscio

In Babylon 5 you took on the concept of the Nightwatch. What are your thoughts regarding the current global monitoring by the NSA? What actions do you feel Americans could be taking to voice their opposition and stand against our present "Nightwatch"?

I know that there are a few things in B5 that were mentioned, maybe touched briefly, that were hinted at and that did eventually not get the attention that I felt they were supposed to get, either because of time constraints, because actors decided to jump ship or because of reasons that I (or even we, as a whole) don't know about.

Are there any plot ideas that you were quite fond of that you could not flesh out the way you wanted them to? Any "loose ends" that you really wanted to tie up and give closure but couldn't during the series run? And, of course, why couldn't you?

When I look back at the 90s, there was so much good science fiction on TV, Babylon 5 included. The writing was good, the stories were human and often inspirational, and above all they required a thinking audience. Nowadays, science fiction on television has become mainly action fantasy more than anything. Most of it takes place in the present day rather than the future. The shows that do start get quickly canceled off, and it seems like they're mostly pessimistic and dumbed-down. I seriously doubt a show like Babylon 5 could ever get made today, much less last more than a single season.

How do you view the current state of science fiction on television, and why has it become this way?

Strangely, the last movies he put out, even though he wrote them and seemed to have a lot of control over them, were just bad in every sense of the word.

They watch like they were written and directed by people who did not understand the universe and did not know how to write/direct.

They are so badly written, just a poor budget cannot take the blame. Babylon 5 was amazingly written, but that does not mean that JMS is infallible or capable of doing it again, even with full creative control and an unlimited bu

While reboots in general are often terrible ideas, I've always felt B5 was a prime candidate for one. It came in that awkward stage between 80's tv and modern tv (it was certainly one of the pioneers of longer story arcs) and also pushed the boundaries of CGI (IMO awesome back then but nigh unwatchable now). I don't know if any of you have tried to go back wand watch those 80's shows you thought were so awesome back then - I have, and they're more often than not unwatchable trash compared to what we are use